Corn Exchange 1891-1892
Berwick Advertiser 1891 Berwick Advertiser 1891 January 23, p. 2, column 5. BERWICK CHORAL UNION. MARITANA. Last night the members of Berwick Choral Union gave their 22nd annual concert in the Corn Exchange, which was filled by a numerous and appreciative audience. The work selected for performance this year was Vincent Wallace’s charming opera “Maritana,” which shares with “Lurline” a large measure of popular favour. The chief features of “Maritana” are its florid orchestration and its fine melodies. The dramatis personae of the opera are Maritana, a handsome gitana, soprano; Lazarillo, mezzo-soprano; Don Caesar de Bazan, tenor; Don Jose de Santarem, baritone; Captain of the Guard, baritone; the King, bass; the Alcade, bass; chorus and soldiers, gipsies and populace. The argument is as follows: Maritana, whilst singing to a crowd of people in a square in Madrid, attracts the admiration of the King of Spain. Don Jose, who is an unscrupulous courtier, observing this, determines to satisfy the King’s whim, and then to betray him to the Queen, with whom he is bold enough to be madly in love. Don Caesar de Bazan, who is an impetuous spendthrift, arrives upon the scene, and in order to protect Lazarillo, who is a poor boy, from arrest, challenges the Captain of the Guard, an action which by a recent edict of the King entails death by hanging. He is arrested and imprisoned, but by Don Jose’s influence his sentence is changed to the more soldier-like death of being shot, on condition that he marries a veiled lady; this he consents to do.
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